Happy Monday, friends!  How was your weekend?  I hope you did something that brought you joy and that you were able to celebrate someone you love on Mother’s Day — whether that was yourself, your mother, or another woman in your life that you’re just so dang thankful for.

I always miss my mom on Mother’s Day, but am so thankful to celebrate my sweet Mother-In-Law, Aunts, and Sister-In-Laws on Mother’s Day every year — and my kids make me feel pretty dang loved too, which is just awesome!

This past week I made a ton of handmade cards and envelopes while I listened to this month’s Exhale podcast — where Sonya and Abbie talked about “Navigating Unmet Creative Expectations.”  One of the most interesting parts of the conversation was when they explained “unlocking the stress cycle” and how creating things with our hands can help us do that.  I thought to myself, “ah-ha!  This is why card making and baking treats for my friends and family has become so dang therapeutic lately!”

I made some “happy mail kits” for some of my sweet friends who live nearby — which included a few handmade cards with coordinating envelopes, a few handmade cards with plain white or craft envelopes, and some cute blank cards I had in my stash as well (from Target and Half-Price Books).  I dropped them off with some cupcakes and hope they’ll get as much joy sending out some happy mail to their loved ones as I did making the kits for them.

I used three paper collections to make these cards that I included in their kits: Shimelle’s Little by Little, Dear Lizzy’s New Day, and Amy Tangerine’s Sunshine and Good Times (all three are by American Crafts).  I used embellishments from the same three collections, along with a few stickers from Jen Hadfield’s Patio Party collection, suede bows from Pink Paiselee/Paige Evans, stamps from Simon Says Stamp, and some resin glitter hearts from Dear Lizzy’s Stay Colorful collection.

I’m pretty sure that all of the papers and embellishments were bought at my local Tuesday Morning, which is my favorite place to shop for quality crafty stuff at really amazing prices (they’re currently closed due to COVID-19, but hopefully will reopen in the coming months).

I make most of my cards with plain white cardstock that I either cut to size myself or with pre-made blank cards from Recollections (I like the small 4×5.5″ size as well as the larger 5×6.5″ ones) that I already had in my stash (but you can totally pick some up at Michaels — I replenished my stash this past week with a curbside pickup order).

I make all of my handmade envelopes with We R Memory Keeper’s envelope punch board, which is one of my favorite crafting tools of all time.

I hope you find some time to drop a card or letter in the mail this week to someone you’re missing right now — it’ll mean more than you know!

Have a great week, friends!  Stay safe and be well!  💛